Jamie Whincup fastest in practice at Sydney 500

JAMIE Whincup showed no signs of relenting yesterday with the soon to be four-time V8 Supercars champion laying down the quickest lap of the day to show he has no intentions of clocking of early.

Already the 2012 champion following a stunning 19-place raid through the field in Winton last round, many were predicting the Holden hot-shot would go through the motions at the Sydney 500.

But it appears Whincup has other plans with the Team Vodafone star waiting until the very last lap in practice session four to snatch the quickest time from Ford rival Will Davison.

In the sweltering conditions which had drivers predicting it will be a "survival of the fittest" in race one today, Whincup bolted on a set of new tyres late in the session before stealing the top spot from Davison and Ford.

"We actually had a tough day," Whincup said.

"In the first run we were just trying to get into the swing of things. To be honest I think the final timesheet is a little bit artificial because we struggled on our practice tyres and had to put a set of race tyres on at the end to go quick. We will have to go a lot quicker tomorrow to be up the front."

Whincup said he would not be showing mercy this weekend and was eager to add to his 12 race wins for the season.

"I think I am about half a second off," Whincup said.

"But I certainly want to be in a position to win. I won't be taking it easy."

The Sydney street kerbs are at the centre of another debate with drivers demanding sensors that measure whether a car has taken too much kerb are turned off for both races.

"It is going to be a big issue once again," Whincup said.

"I think they need to be turned off. It is tough to get things right because our cars love kerbs. We need to be slowed down and we need chicanes and we are slowly improving but I think the sensors need to be turned off because we don't know where we stand and the kerbs are big enough to slow us down."

Ford's Davison said the Sydney street circuit was his second favourite track after Bathurst and was out to end Team Vodafone's domination.

He is also hoping to score another pole-position to win the most amount of poles for the year.

"I am certainly hoping to get that," Davison said.

"I am very focused on that. But I can't try any harder than I normally do. I was quick here last year and it seems to have carried over to today. The conditions are much different, much hotter, but we still have a competitive car."

Davison also called for the kerb sensors to be turned off. "It is very inconsistent," Davison said. "In my quickest lap I set it off and I didn't use much at all. I used about three times as much a lap later and it was set off. I spent the entire practice session working out where I could drive instead of worrying about set-up."

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